Environmentalism and parenting

[pegkerr]

I have friended the bikepirates community. It's been interesting: this is (I gather) a rather younger group--I feel like quite the old fart, being in my forties and all. I joined to pick up information about this bicycling thang, but there is an attitude vibe there, too, which can be a bit rough to take.

For example, someone made a post here advertising a new community, carfreepirates. Which is cool. One of the commenters, however, said something that sticks in my craw:

FYI - there used to be a non_drivers community, but it dissappeared for mysterious reasons.

I've joined up, since I'm car free and sometimes I need a little morale boost, since no one *with* a car, really gets it, even though they also don't understand how I can stay in such good shape and I'm not stressed out and road raged all the time.

I replied:

I HAVE to have a car since I have kids to transport, and there is no bus to where I need to go. I could hardly balance both of them (and their karate sparring gear) on my handlebars.

But I ride my bicycle to work.

For what it's worth, I wasn't the only person to challenge the original commenter. I feel as though I'm doing my part by starting to bicycle. But I've seen this before, this smug dismissal of my selfishness for driving a big car (I have an old jeep with 140,000+ miles). We all hear environmentalists railing against people who drive SUVs. Yes, I guess I'm defensive about it. And yet, really, with two kids that I'm taking four times a week to karate class (with huge duffel bags stuffed with sparring equipment) what else can I do?

I want to reduce my environmental footprint. But please consider: when you're a parent, and you have to get kids to activities and back and forth from day care, bussing usually doesn't work. And bicycling is not an option either.

Bottom line: Please don't assume I'm selfish because I drive a car. I drive a car because I'm a parent.

But I'm also an environmentalist because I'm a parent.

Edited to add: Today is a classic example. I drove today. Why? Because of the snow (argh)? No. Because Delia has a doctor's appointment. I have to leave work, drive to her school to pick her up, drive her to the doctor, and then get her home. This trip would be absolutely impossible by either mass transit or bicycle.

And *snerk* Someone has replied to the original poster (who headed the post with the tagline "Every car a murder, every bike a love affair"): "How do you think all those bike parts get to the shops? It's not magic, that's for sure."

Comments

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

We are currently in the Netherlands. Before that we lived in the Phoenix area. The two of us went from three vehicles including a very large SUV (guzzled gas, but was also fully loaded up fairly often, e.g. used to transport rowing shells, parts and rowers to regattas), a small pickup (used to clear brush, not much otherwise) and a tiny car (my commute vehicle), to one small car. Except for weekend trips to other cities, we drive to work and back and that's it; we walk or bike for everything else. Now that the weather's getting better, we'll probably bike to work some days. Even some of our weekend trips are via train rather than car, and even when we do go out of town we end up fueling up about once every 2-3 weeks.

In other words, you're right :-)

[whiskeychick.livejournal.com]

oh lucky you! the netherlands was one of my fav destinations when we lived in europe. the people there were fantabulous! taking the train from frankfurt to amsterdam was so much fun!
thanks for pinging some warm memories for me!